End of 40: Bruins 1, Sabres 1

[table “70” not found /]

Boston killed-off a Milan Lucic high-sticking minor penalty early on, and another Marco Sturm holding the stick penalty later in the second period. The B’s have now successfully killed all 11 times short this series against the Sabres. The Black-and-Gold will start the first 51 second of the third period with a man down, as Andrew Ference will serve the rest of his two-minute tripping minor.

Boychuk tattooed a puck-rushing Matt Ellis as soon as he crossed his won blue-line and entered the neutral zone. Ellis was dazed and confused, but made a stumbling bee-line down the tunnel and into the locker room — but did return. That heavyweight hit naturally got the crowd right back into it.

A game-high five more for Sobotka tonight, as his 14 total this series leads all Bruins thus far. The 22-year-old has been physical, aggressive, strong on his feet, and arguably the best forward for Boston. He stood his ground in front of Sabres’ net-minder Ryan Miller and drew a penalty as Andrej Sekera got nabbed for interference. I wonder if his play will merit him some time on the power play sometime soon?

No shocker here: Zdeno Chara is leading the Bruins with 17:13 TOI, 3:07 on the PP, and 2:49 on the PK.

Patrice Bergeron is struggling on the face-off dot tonight (4/13 for 31%) against Derek Roy (11/14 for 79%)